Reign (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale Book 4) (3 page)

“Okay then. When you’re ready to proceed.”

She nodded her head, crumpled up the
paper into a small ball, and tossed it in the trash can. A smile crept up her
face and she raised an eyebrow in challenge. The smirk dropped from his haughty
face and he moved away from the wall.

“An interesting fact that is not well known
is that the Grimm Brothers were inter-dimensional travelers who captured and
sent evil Fae back to their world, which exists on another plane.” The words
were clear and crisp, and she didn’t stutter. “Although tasked with an impossible
quest, they never gave up in their mission. And to this day their descendants
carry on the same assignment. I once said that Joseph and Wilhelm were cursed,
because it seemed like the odds were stacked against them. But I was wrong.
They’re not the ones cursed. They’re the ones who live free. It’s the Fae that
are cursed, and all the ones who must live in fear of tyranny. It is those on
the Fae plane I pity, for their time here is short. The Grimm grace period is
over. I will not fail to end the tyranny where others have. So run. Run while
you can,” she threatened.

Silence filled the room as the tension
tried to find a way out. Mina knew what her classmates were probably thinking,
although no one said a word. It was uncomfortable and awkward.

Teague looked angry enough to spit acid.
“I warned you, Grimm. I warned you, but you didn’t listen,” he spoke out.

Not a single head turned his direction.
They were all focused on her. She could see the odd shoulder shrug, the pairs
of rolled eyes as some tried to process what she’d said. Only Nix heard Teague,
and when Teague’s threat reached his ears, he started to tremble and slid lower
in his chair. Any lower and he would be sitting on the floor.

Mina didn’t back down from Teague. She
knew never to back down from a rabid dog, and this was the same. This was an
intimidation game, and she could not show any sign of weakness.

She managed to cross the short distance
without her legs crumbling under her. Now for the icing on the cake. When she
reached her desk, she turned her back on Teague, sat in her chair, and
pretended to inspect the non-existent nail polish on her fingers.

She could feel the crackle of energy
building behind her. It was almost impossible to ignore. The room dropped in
temperature, and goose bumps ran up and down her arms. Without looking, she
knew Teague was doing what he could to draw her attention, but she turned to
Brody and gave him her most dazzling smile.

Or what she hoped was a dazzling smile. It
probably looked a bit pained and constipated. “How’d I do?” she asked.

“That was intense,” he answered. His
brows furrowed and he looked around. “Does it seem like it got really cold all
of a sudden?” When Brody exhaled, his breath turned white.

“No, I don’t find it cold at all,” she
lied. Her heart was racing so fast that it sounded like a bass drum leading a
marching band in her ears. The temperature dropped again.

Just
go away. Please just go away.
She
looked over her shoulder to see frost creeping up the nearest window and spreading
out in impossible swirling fractals. Mina picked up the pencil on her desk and tapped
it on her notebook. She visibly shivered from the chill in the air and watched
as Mr. Morris went over to thermostat. He rapped the square white box a few
times and waited before flicking it off then on.

By now a few of the students were pulling
their arms inside of their sleeves and rubbing them to create friction. To have
this kind of chill in the middle of a seventy-degree day was nuts.

An idea came to Mina, and she flipped
open her notebook and scribbled the words
GO AWAY, TEAGUE
in bold capital
letters and waited.

Only moments later, his answer appeared
in a beautiful cursive script on the paper before her.

Not
until I get what I want.

What
do you want? You’ve won, okay?

I
want the dagger.

Mina had no idea what Teague was referring
too, so she answered,
???

You
know what I mean. Bring it to me and I’ll let your friends live. If you don’t,
I’ll destroy them. One by one.

Mina couldn’t ignore the threat anymore.
She dropped her pencil and turned around to look at Teague, but the back of the
room was empty. She felt a sense of loss and desperation and turned to face the
front again.

There he was. She came face to face with
fierce blue eyes. Teague was leaning across her desk, his face inches from
hers. She could feel his breath on her face when he exhaled, and she was very
careful to not move or alert the rest of the room to the invisible person she
was having an intense conversation with. From the corner of her eye, she saw Nix’s
eyes transfixed on her, waiting to jump in and help if needed. But she could
tell he was terrified.

Oddly, Mina didn’t feel the same. It
wasn’t fear that caused the single tear to cascade down her cheek, but sadness—at
the loss of Jared. Looking into Jared’s face and seeing someone else’s hate-filled
gaze was almost her undoing.

One corner of Teague’s lip curled up in a
smile when he saw her tear. He leaned even closer across the desk and whispered
into her ear. “That’s right, little Grimm. You should be afraid, be very afraid,
of what I’m about to do to your friends.”

Her breath caught in her throat and a
little gasp escaped, but it was not for the same reasons he probably thought.
Teague’s voice sounded so much like his other half.

“Jared.” Mina let the name slide across
her lips in an almost inaudible whisper.

Except that Teague was close enough to
hear the name. He pulled back from her with such force that Mina’s desk moved.
His face turned red with rage, and his eyes glowed and crackled with power.

Loose papers began to flutter and fly
about the room. Pencils rolled off desks and skittered across the floor.
Students’ startled cries filled the air as many jumped up out of their seats.
The desks moved outward, seemingly all on their own, from the epicenter that
was Teague.

She knew better than to show that this
had anything to do with her, so she sat frozen in her desk, staring at the
display of power that Teague emanated almost unconsciously. Was this why he
wanted his other half back? What if this was only a small taste of the power he
gained when he became one with Jared?

Mina’s hands slowly moved to the edge of
her desk and gripped the sides until her knuckles turned white. What had she
done? They were doomed.

Her desk started to move backward from
Teague’s fury storm of power, but she wrapped her ankles around the legs of the
desk and held on. Pinching her lips together, she locked eyes with Teague in
angry challenge and nodded her head—signifying that yes, she would give
him his whatchamacallit.

Within half a second, he was gone. The
wind had stopped, the desks had quit moving across the floor, and Mina looked
around in surprise. Brody, Nan, Nix, and the rest of the classroom were pinned
against all four classroom walls by desks.

Mina was the only student still in her
seat. And her desk, in the exact center of the room, was the only one not
disturbed. So much for being inconspicuous.

“Mina?” Nan’s shaking voice called out as
she began to try and push a desk out of the way and make it over to her.

Mina’s fingers still gripped the edges of
her desk, and she quickly released them and unlaced her legs as well. It looked
odd, and frankly she had no explanation for what had happened. She glanced up
to see an air conditioning vent in the ceiling that was right above her desk.

“That was scary,” she joked. “Someone
should get the AC fixed.” She picked up her books and bolted for the door just
as the bell rang.

Footsteps sounded behind her, but Mina
didn’t slow her pace. A quick self-preserving glance revealed the red-headed
Nix. He took two large steps and caught up to her.

“Don’t tell me that the dark prince
visits you at school often.”

“I can’t tell him what to do. Or have you
forgotten all the havoc he wreaked on the Fae plane?”

“No, I have not forgotten. Nor will I
ever forget what he is capable of doing. But I wonder if you have.”

“I can handle him,” Mina said.

“No, I don’t think you can. Not on your
own anyway.” Nix grabbed Mina’s shoulder and pulled her over by the water
fountain. “You look at him and see Jared. You were in love with Jared, so you’re
letting his looks fool you into thinking he is, in part, still the same person.
He’s not. You don’t know what the prince was like before there ever was a
Jared.”

“Do you? Does anyone really know someone?”

“I’ve grown up on the Fae plane. I’ve
heard the stories of his destructive power. The other Nixies retold the stories
frequently. What you did back there was suicide.” Nix flung his arm out toward
the classroom they’d just left and almost clotheslined a poor unsuspecting
student. “Sorry!” he yelled, grimacing. “Mina, what I’m trying to say is don’t
throw your life away by challenging the most destructive being in the world.”

“I didn’t challenge him,” Mina whispered.

“Yes, you did. You were insubordinate,
which only angers him more.”

“Of course I’m insubordinate. I don’t
answer to him. He’s not my prince. He doesn’t rule my world.”

Nix swallowed and looked back toward the classroom
as Nan exited. Her blonde hair was disheveled and she looked a little shaken,
but she was now laughing at what had happened. Brody was searching the mass of
students in the hallways. They could hear T.J. asking if anyone else’s air
conditioning unit had tried to freeze the classroom into a fortress of
solitude.

“Not yet, he doesn’t. Not yet,” Nix
answered solemnly.

Chapter 3

Mina waited outside of the music room for
Mrs. Colbert to exit. Mrs. Colbert—Constance, as she was known by the Fae—was
in fact a Godmother. Or as they referred to themselves these days, GMs.
Students filed out of the music class in groups of twos and threes. Mina waved
as Melissa, Makaylee, and Julianne walked out, but the girls only smiled
politely and waved in reply.

Mina heard Melissa ask her friend, “Who’s
she?”

Makaylee shrugged. “Beats me.”

“No clue,” Julianne answered.

Mina inwardly groaned at how thorough the
Story could be sometimes when resetting everyone’s memories. She knew she
couldn’t keep letting the memory wipe happen to her friends. Not without
permanent damage.

Even Nan had been acting strange lately.
Ever since the last quest ended and Nix appeared. Some days she would be her
normal and chipper self, but other days, mellow and withdrawn.

When no more students exited the
classroom, Mina rushed inside to Constance. “He was here! Teague showed up here
at school.”

The Godmother’s face filled with panic,
and she rushed toward the door as if to stop the prince by herself.

“He’s gone.” Mina called after her
teacher. Constance slowed, smoothed her gray pencil skirt, and adjusted the
teal wingtip glasses on her small nose.

“I wonder what his intentions are. Why
did he show up today, reveal himself to you, and not do any harm?” Constance
ran her hands through her wavy hair. The spiky style she used to wear looked
like a Pixie cut, but this made her softer somehow. Her eyes kept flicking to
the window and back to the door, checking all of the exits, despite Mina’s
assurance that he was no longer here.

 
“He showed up to annoy me, to threaten
me, to demand that I give him some dagger or he’ll destroy my friends.”

“A dagger?” She paused, looking pensive
for a moment before shaking her head. “And he just left without it?”

She shrugged her. “Yeah, he just left.”

“He’s stronger than he’s been in a
hundred years. Mina, you have to be careful. He’s vengeful and he’s dangerous.
He could have destroyed the whole school with everyone in it.”

Mina’s heart was thundering and her mouth
went dry. “Then why didn’t he?” Now Mina was the one checking all the exits and
watching the windows. All she saw was a steady rain.

“I don’t know. But remember what I told
you about this being your chance to end the curse on your family. He’s only
going to continue to grow stronger with time. He’s waiting for something. I
just don’t know what.”

“Do you know what Teague was referring to?
The dagger? And why does he think I have it?” Mina came in and sat on one of
the vacated music chairs. “I need help. I’m defenseless against the curse.”

Constance looked her over and smiled,
shaking her head slowly in disagreement. “Who’s to say you don’t have it? After
all you live in a very mysterious house.”

“Do you know something I don’t?” Mina snapped.

“Well…” Constance pursed her lips. She
raised one eyebrow on her otherwise calm face. “Defenseless? With each quest
you complete, not only does the Story—excuse me, Teague—grow
stronger, but so do you, dear child. It happens to all the chosen Grimms
eventually. You can’t be involved with so much Fae magic and not have some of
it rub off you. You must have seen some signs by now, Mina,” Mrs. Colbert
coaxed.